tiï O A
Our business priorities (continued)
Brew a Better World
Doing business around the world comes with a responsibility
that reaches beyond running an efficient and profitable business.
That is why we have made sustainable development part of
0 our overall business strategy and why we want to contribute
to delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Drop the C
Every Drop
Advocating responsible consumption
Safety
Human rights
7"
Introductio^^^^^^^^^^H Report of the Executive Board^^^^^l Report of the Supervisory Board
To develop successful brands that people trust,
we aim to make a positive contribution to the
environment, local communities and wider society.
In 2018, we made steady progress towards reaching
our 2020 Brewing a Better World targets. We also
began to look beyond 2020 and started shaping
our sustainable development strategy for 2030.
We launched our Drop the C programme in 2018
with the aim of reducing our CO2 emissions by 80%*
and using 70% of renewable energy in production
by 2030. We have started a number of projects to
drive us towards these targets looking into biomass
and biogas, wind and solar energy. Meanwhile, we
are ahead of our 2020 carbon reduction targets in
production and cooling. Emissions in distribution
also continue to decrease, although we need to do
more to achieve our 2020 ambition.
In 2018, we continued to decrease our water
consumption and reached our 2020 target. By the
end of the year, 96% of wastewater was treated and
we expanded our water balancing initiatives. Now,
we are raising our ambition; in 2019, we will launch
our new water strategy, Every Drop, and increase
efforts towards supporting watershed health in the
areas where we operate, particularly those which are
water-stressed.
Making moderation cool is core to our strategy.
We use our marketing power, sponsorships and
partnerships to address consumers directly and
*Baseline 2008
we conduct behavioural research on drink driving
to develop effective messages and campaigns.
We believe that consumers should have access to
ingredient and nutrition information for our products.
Ahead of industry and regulation, we made this
information available for 95% of our beers and ciders
worldwide in 2018. Our expanding offer of over 325
low- and no-alcohol products across 125 brands
allows consumers to make right choices when they
should not, or do not want to, drink alcohol.
Safety is a top priority for us. Our accident frequency
rate has decreased since 2015 but we have more
to do while serious accidents and fatalities still
happen. We proactively identify safety risks across
our business and develop actions to address them.
We also understand that providing a safe working
environment goes beyond implementing tools and
programmes. Adopting the right safety behaviours
among employees and contractors is an equally
important part of our work in this area.
In 2018, we revised our global Human Rights Policy
and researched the challenges and salient risks our
business faces. As a result, we have set clear guiding
principles for our employees and suppliers and we
are taking action to address the risks. Respecting and
protecting the human rights of everyone who directly
or indirectly works for HEINEKEN requires ongoing
attention and we will continue to work with external
experts, such as Shift, to monitor our progress.
®For more on our Brewing a Better World commitments and
performance, please turn to the Sustainability Review on page 119.
More in-depth information can be found in the sustainability section
of our Company website.
Heineken N.V. Annual Report 2018
Financial Statements Sustainability Review Other Information
Brewing a Better World in action
Supporting local sourcing
37% of agricultural raw materials used in Africa and the
Middle East were sourced within the region in 2018.
This was below our expectations and we continue to face
challenges sourcing the local ingredients in the format our
breweries need. Our local sourcing initiatives continued
to support thousands of smallholder farmers to increase
productivity, improve food security and to sell their surplus
production in local markets. We remain fully committed to
developing sustainable agricultural value chains in Africa
(see more on page 132).
Restoration of wetland lagoons
Water balancing in Spain continues with the restoration
of four lagoons and surrounding ecosystems in the
Donana wetlands, the largest biodiversity area of Europe
and an important resting place for migrating birds and
other animals. According to a study by the University of
Granada, the project will return more than 1 million m3
water to the environment.